USA > Michigan > Washtenaw County > Combination atlas map of Washtenaw County, Michigan > Part 4
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Civil Divisions.
No. of acres Value of farms improved land.
and farming implements.
Value of live Value of all stock.
productions.
Wheat. Bushels.
Ann Arbor
12,957
1,093,263
90,016
259,015
55,855
Augusta ...
8,798
717,665
105,399
164,971
13,898
Bridgewater ...
14,123
1,181,150
142,365
259,415
55,748
Dexter.
10,320
725,590
95,061
138,350
34,337
Freedom
13,226
920,775
122,425
186,139
54,811
Lima.
13,883
1,132,195
149,360
212,914
57,081
Lodi
15,950
1,391,990
158,475
309,010
63,206
Lyndon.
12,027
735,365
97,543
146,437
39,619
Manchester.
14,818
1,183,975
133,140
266,360
50,351
Northfield
13,942
1,064,835
89,293
242,568
68,025
Pittsfield
16,875
1,619,060
157,870
358,214
65,425
Salem ..
15,233
1,265,750
141,150
299,600
56,083
Saline
15,967
1,268,625
154,110
292,555
60,499
Scio ....
13,715
1,168,145
140,999
207,813
63,756
Sharon ...
17,000
1,459,630
132,413
246,486
59,496
Superior
16,405
1,347,900
148,556
322,927
50,836
Sylvan.
13,192
1,032,837
132,247
203,139
53,659
Webster
13,600
966,940
83,940
231,715
55,535
York.
15,232
1,170,180
141,225
263,425
48,809
Ypsilanti.
16,841
1,535,990
159,806
286,090
42,017
Aggregate.
283,004
22,982,260
2,555,393
4,897,143
1,049,046
By the above table it will be seen that over one million bushels of wheat alone are raised annually in the County.
Washtenaw produces more wool, fruit, and hay than any county in the State. It has twenty-one flouring- and thirty-three saw-mills.
Washtenaw maintains an energetic Agricultural and Horticultural Society, which owns fine grounds within the city limits of Ann Arbor, containing perma- nent buildings, where its annual fairs are held.
The " Patrons of Husbandry" are also strongly organized in the County, there being eight "granges" already established, as follows:
Stony Creek
.J. P. Alcott, Master.
.Stony Creek P. O.
Fraternity
J. W. Childs,
Ypsilanti
=
Ypsilanti
A. Campbell,
Model ..
L. R. Brown,
Rawsonville
=
Superior.
E. M. Cole,
Ypsilanti
Saline Union.
Peter Cook,
Saline
Lafayette.
E. A. Nordman, "
.Lima
Milan.
James Doyle,
Milan
POLITICAL AND STATISTICAL.
Washtenaw County'was laid out in 1822, and attached to Wayne. It was organized in 1826. In 1829 Jackson County was surveyed and attached to Wash- tenaw, but detached as a separate civil jurisdiction in 1832. Livingston County was set off in 1836. The population of the County for the last three decades is as follows : in 1850, it showed a total of 28,569 ; in 1860, it figured up 35,747; and in 1870, it amounted to 41,434, of whom 8,726 were foreign born. According to the census of 1870, there were but two Indians in the County. The same reliable doc- ument shows that there are 7,964 dwellings, 8,172 families, and 10,125 voters in the County. Right here we will say, that Washtenaw ranks as fourth in the State in the matter of population.
Washtenaw has no representation among the present State Officers (1873-4), but on the State Boards and Commissions has a fair showing,-viz .: Honorable J. W. Childs, member of State Board of Agriculture; Dr. Rominger, Ann Arbor, State Geologist; C. B. Grant, Ann Arbor, one of the Michigan Commissioners for Centennial of American Independence; Samuel F. Cook, Ann Arbor, member of Commission on Territorial Laws; Rev. Charles H. Brigham, member of State Board of Health; S. M. Cutcheon, Ypsilanti, of the Commission to revise the Constitution, of which body he acted as president; Joseph Estabrook, Ypsilanti, member of the Board of Regents of the Michigan University; James B. Angell, of the University, president of the Board, ex-officio; Dr. P. B. Rose, State Petro- leum Inspector for Washtenaw County.
The County is represented in the State Senate by Honorable J. Webster Childs, and in the lower House by C. B. Grant, M. J. Noyes, and Peter Cook,-all Repub- lican.
Washtenaw County is in the Second Congressional District, comprises the Fourth Senatorial District, and contains three representative districts, as apportioned by Act of Legislature in 1871. It is also in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, Alexander D. Crane, of Dexter, judge. Terms of court for this County commence on the fourth Mondays of February and May, thesecond Monday of September, and the fourth Monday of November. of County officers, and of the super- visors of the several towns, we ce rymed in another place; also a list of all the chief executives of the State From the days of the French governors down to the present time.
In the matter of the removal of the State capital to Detroit, this County was directly interested, as Ann Arbor was one of the contesting claimants for its loca- tion Alpheus Felch, a prominent citizen of this County, was governor at the time. After tedious log-rolling, in 1847, it was located in an unbroken wilder- ness, in Ingham County. The old Whig party had become much disorganized after the defeat of General Scott, in 1852, and the Free-soil party was increasing in strength. A movement to fuse the two parties was made, and on July 6, 1854, a mass convention met at Jackson, at which both Whig and Free-soil tickets were withdrawn, and a new ticket made by selection from both, thus inaugurating the great Republican party, which has controlled the affairs of the nation ever since.
The political status of the present Board of Supervisors of the County is four- teen Republican and eleven Democratic members.
Ann Arbor was made the County-seat in 1824. The court-house was built in 1833; the corner-stone laid the 19th of June. Mr. Rumsey gave one block of land-on Liberty Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets-for a "jail square," upon which was built, on or before 1829, a log jail. It was square, two stories high, and built of heavy logs, planked on the inside and weather-boarded on the outside. Moses Boylan was jailer from 1832 to 1835. In 1838 the present jail, in third ward, was erected. The poor farm was bought and the asylum for the poor established in 1836.
SOCIETIES.
Prominent among the organizations of the County is the old settlers' society, known under the title of "The Pioneer Society of Washtenaw County." It was established in the summer of 1873, and General Clark, of Ann Arbor, was its first chairman. Its present officers are ex-Governor A. Felch, of Ann Arbor, presi- dent; G. S. Wheeler, of Salem, secretary ; M. H. Goodrich, of Ann Arbor, corre-
20
eponding secretary ; J. G. Leland, of Ann Arbor, treasurer; beside an executive committee of five and a vice- president from each town. This society is to have an annual meeting and festival and regular bimensal sessions, at which times the history and reminiscences of pioneer days will be recounted. Although yet youthful, it promises much usefulness in snatching from threatened oblivion those events of the past which should go upon the pages of undying history.
The Washtenaw County Agricultural Society has been many years in exist- ence, and is ably supported by the farmers of the County. Its present officers (1874) are : president, John J. Robison ; vice-presidents, J. G. Leland, Burk Spencer, George A. Peters, David Cody, and G. N. B. Renwick ; recording secre- tary, J. E. Sumner; corresponding secretary, Davis; treasurer, J. J. Parshall, with an examining committee, composed of a member from each town.
There is also a "New England Society," whose membership (and their friends) generally celebrate "Forefathers' Day." In all parts of the County are flourish- ing branches of the Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Good Templars, etc., beside numerous literary associations and lyceums. There is also a County Medical Society, which has been in existence a good many years.
NEWSPAPERS.
The first newspaper was the Michigan Emigrant, published by Samuel Dexter, about 1827. The press of the County is at present represented by the following papers : Peninsula Courier, Ann Arbor; Michigan Argus, Ann Arbor; University Chronicle, Ann Arbor; Palladium, Ann Arbor; The Oracle, Ann Arbor; Journal, "Manchester; Enterprise, Manchester; Herald, Chelsea; Review, Saline; Sentinel, Ypsilanti ; Commercial, Ypsilanti ; Leader, Dexter.
Of the papers previously published in the County, but now extinct, we name The Michigan State Journal, The True Democrat, The Primitive Expounder, and Coon Hunter. The two last being campaign papers. The Signal of Liberty, an Abolition paper, the State Register, a Know-nothing organ, Local News and Adver- tiser, followed by the State News, L. Davis, proprietor. The Ann Arbor Journal and Washtenaw Whig was established in 1855, by Cole and Davis. An advent paper was published for a short time, and in the fall of 1857 one number of a daily from the office of the State Register. The growth of Washtenaw County has not been so rapid as it has been permanent and reliable. The traveler now sees few log houses; they have been supplanted by substantial and, in many places, elegant and costly buildings, as the lithographic illustrations in this work show. From a population of half a dozen persons in 1823,-all living in log houses,-it had attained, in 1870, to a population of about forty-two thousand, while its lands have in the same time increased one-hundred fold ! It has slowly but steadily developed manufacturing enterprises. Railroads, with attendant telegraph lines, have rendered communication very easy. Schools and churches have had vigorous growth, and rank among the first in the land. Intelligence and morality have kept pace with its progress, making it the abode of peace and plenty, comfort and security.
The citizens of Washtenaw are largely American, their places of nativity being principally in the New England and Middle States. Her people feel a just pride in being residents of Washtenaw County and citizens of a State which has an area of 56,243 square miles, embracing a population of over a million and a quarter of souls.
Washtenaw fournished men for the Black Hawk War, and was interested in the Toledo War, a brief and bloodless one, that ended by compromise and ex- change of territory. In the late war of the rebellion, Michigan achieved a glorious record, and in that great name Washtenaw stood her full share, not only in laurels received, but in losses sustained. Her patriotism was notahly genuine, as the many loyal graves all over the County attest, and as the " Soldiers' Monument" bears further witness.
Be the growth and prosperity of the State what it may, Washtenaw County, with her past prestige and present facilities, must ever hold high rank as an intelligent, wealthy, and patriotic member.
The publishers would return their sincere thanks to their many patrons and friends for aid in preparing this history, to whom they feel much indebted for the interest they have in every way manifested in making the work thorough and complete.
SALEM TOWNSHIP.
Salem possesses a diversified surface, with openings in the northwest and southwest, plains in the southeast, the remainder being heavily timbered. Soil mostly clay. The south and west branches of the river Rouge rise in, and flow southeasterly through, this Township, with saw-mills on each. The town was formerly known as Panama, its name being changed about 1832, when Salem was organized and participated under that name for the first time in the territorial elections. At that time there were but ten organized towns in the County. The first land located was by Rufus Thayer,-the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 13,-the 25th of September, 1825. ' John and Joseph Dickinson were the first actual settlers,-in 1825-6. They were followed soon after by Dr. Pratt, Jesse Peters, Jacob Bullock, George Renwick, Calvin Wheeler, Reuben Peebles, Alexis Packard, Robert and John McCormick. George Renwick was a promi- nent man in the early history of Salem, and its first supervisor. The first re- ligious society formed was the Baptist,-organized about 1837. The following year the First Congregational Society of Salem was established. The North Salem Wesleyan Methodist Society was instituted at the house of John Dramond, May 16, 1848; the Free Will Baptist Society in 1846. The Union Religious Society of Salem and Lyon was incorporated in 1850, with John Waterman, Daniel Pomeroy, and Michael Thompson as trustees. The Congregational Church edifice was the first constructed in Salem. The first physicians were Doctors Cook and Spence. The first post-office was that of Salem, and George Renwick first postmaster. Mrs. Anny Dickerson was the first white woman in the town. The first school-house was located at Lapham's Corners. The pioneer blacksmith was Phineas Clark. There never was a grog-shop in Salem Township.
SALEM, & small village, two miles south of the station of same name, on the Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Railroad, and fourteen miles northeast of Ann Arbor. It is situated also on a branch of the river Rouge, in a good farm- ing district, and ships to a considerable extent of the produce of the country.
SUMMIT, the post-office of Salem station. Has a daily mail, presided over by Calvin Wheeler.
NORTHFIELD TOWNSHIP.
,
The town of Northfield was organized about the year 1832, prior to which time it was a part of Ann Arbor Township. For several years Green Oak was attached to the jurisdiction of Northfield, but after Livingston was set off, it became a part of that County. The southern portion of the town was the first to be settled, because of its juxtaposition to the existing settlements of the adjoining town of Ann Arbor. Benjamin Sutton is said to have been the first settler in Northfield, -coming early in 1825. Among other prominent settlers we may name Rufus Mathews, an early supervisor, Charles Place, Isaac Secord, Joseph Lane, Orrison and Joshua Leland, who settled in the southeast part of the town, Mr. Seymour, one of the Morgan kidnappers, who died of cholera in 1834, came about 1829; Dr. Halleck, still living at the Lake, came in the spring of 1833, prior to which
Christian Zuck had located on the shores of the lake. Hanson Sessions settled about the same time, in the northeast corner of the town, near the Livingston line, and Nathaniel Brundage, John Renwick, and Robert Appleton, in different parts of the town. Michael Stubbs, an influential Irishman,-who was subse- quently supervisor and member of the Constitutional Convention,-was the first of his nationality to make a home in this Township; his success and influence soon drew around him others of the same nativity, increasing with every suc- ceeding season, until to-day by far the larger part of its population claim descent from the little " gem o' the sea,"-Ireland. The first preachers were Colclazer and Marcus Swift; the first church was the Roman Catholic, established about 1832. William Sprague held protracted meetings in the spring of 1837, which were followed by the organization of & Methodist Church. Benjamin Sutton raised the first frame house in Northfield, now occupied by George Sutton. Benjamin Sutton was also the first justice; Joshua G. Leland was the first after the present town was organized. J. G. Leland and George Dexter were the inspectors of the first election held in the town, at which John Renwick was the first supervisor. In the early days of Northfield's history, military trainings were in vogue, but contentions between the sons of the Emerald Isle and those to the manor born, broke them up, and the threatened organization of the "Irish Greens" never be- came a matter of fact. The log tavern at Welsh's Corners (otherwise Multhaupt's) was an old pioneer in this line, and the first in the town, unless the one at the lake, over which Tommy Stevens presided, be entitled to priority. The first school-house was the one built in the south part of the town, upon the farm of Benjamin Sutton, in 1826; the first after Northfield was set off was the one on William Deitz's place, midway between Leland's Corners and Renwick's; the first in the north part of the Township was established in the fractional district of Northfield and Green Oak, in 1834. The first teacher was Miss Sybil Bard- well, since deceased. The first marriage is supposed to have been that of William Jackson to Joanna Secord. The first birth was Nathan Sutton ; the first death that of Nathan Brundage, in August, 1829. Religions services in the early day were held at the house of Mr. Zuck for some considerable time, afterward in the school-house, but subsequently at South Lyon, after the organization of a church at that point.
The surface of this Township is mostly rolling, with openings in the south, and timber in the northeast. There are many beautiful level plains in the town ; and from the fact of these fields lying north of Ann Arbor, or in the north part of the County, probably originated the name of the Township. The soil is clay loams. Northfield embraces some of the finest lakes in the State, prominent among which are Whitmore and Horse-Shoe Lakes, the former deriving its name from an early viewer, but a non-resident,-Luke H. Whitmore.
WHITMORE LAKE, a small village of some two hundred inhabitants, is ten miles due north of the County-seat, on the Brighton road. The beautiful lake upon whose banks it is situated has long been a popular place of summer resort for persons seeking health or pleasure. It has two good hotels, a general store, and a tri-weekly mail, over which Nelson Halleck has supervision.
GRAVEL RUN Post-office takes its name from a small stream of that name. Its first settlement was in 1842, by Roswell Curtis, who died in 1870, after having served as postmaster for twenty years. It is in Section II, on the route between Ann Arbor and South Lyon, and has a semi-weekly mail.
DEXTER TOWNSHIP.
The original Township of Dexter comprised what is now included in the towns of Dexter, Webster, Scio, Lima, Freedom, Bridgewater, Manchester, Sharon, Sylvan, Lyndon, as well as the settled portions of the unorganized counties of Jackson and Livingston. It was organized by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, at the time Washtenaw County was organized, about the beginning of the year 1827. The first supervisor is believed to have been Rufus Crosman, who held the office two or three years. There is no record of Township meetings until 1830, in which year Chauncey S. Goodrich was elected supervisor, and Dr. Cyril Nichols town clerk. Goodrich was succeeded by Henry Warner, who officiated for two years, followed in 1833 by Nathan Pierce. But Webster, Scio, and Bridgewater were set off prior to that date. Mr. Warner, one of the first settlers of the town, says he has served on the Board of Supervisors when there were but five in the County; namely, George Renwick, of Salem, then known as Panama; Job Gorton, of Ypsilanti; Harvey Chubb, of Ann Arbor; Orrin Parsons, of Saline; and himself. George Warner, a brother of Henry, was collector of taxes for Dexter about that time, and went to the "Bend of the Raisin,"-or what is now Sharon, Bridgewater, and Manchester,-and also to Jackson and Pinckney, to collect the taxes on his roll. In the spring of 1834, the town comprised the present towns of Dexter and Lyndon, with the settled portions of Livingston County, or at least the western part thereof. That year David Dudley was chosen supervisor, and C. B. Taylor town clerk. The present town of Dexter was organized in 1836, with Thomas Lee and Dr. Amos Gray as supervisor and town clerk respectively.
The first settlement in the town was made in 1825, on the northeast fractional one-fourth of Section 36, by Sylvanus and Nathaniel Noble, who had settled in Ann Arbor the previous year. Samuel W. Dexter, afterward judge, had previous to this located land in the village, now within the limits of Scio and Webster. He soon after took up the east one-half of Section 12, in Dexter, where the Dorer Mills are now situated, his patent being dated April 2, 1825. The next inhabi- tants were Joseph Arnold, Rufus Crosman, and Henry Warner, each of whom located land in the early part of the year 1826, made some improvements, and removed their families there in the fall of the same year. The names of those who came into the town during the next two years are C. S. Goodrich, Cornelius Osterhout, David Dudley, Richard Brower, Charles B. Taylor, Levi Whitcomb, Thomas Lee, Isaiah Phelps, Roger Carr, and his sons Enos and Elijah, Sidney S. Derby, and Clark Perry. Solomon Peterson came in at the same time, but settled near Pinckney. Henry Warner still lives, at the age of seventy-seven years, on the same farm which he first located; Joseph Arnold is still in Dexter, but lives with his son on another farm; Mr. Derby is in Ypsilanti; Mr. Brower went back to Steuben County, New York ; Levi Whitcomb went to Green Bay, Wisconsin, some years ago. The others have all passed away. Garadus Noble, Adrian Quackinbush, Ephraim Carpenter, George H. Sherman, Isaac Pennoyer, Richard Peterson, John G. Peterson, Warren Spaulding, John Bruen, Samuel Northam, James M. La Rue, Patrick Hubbard, Daniel Tuttle, and Eben Phelps, became residents of the town before 1833, none of whom now reside there, and not more than two or three of whom are believed to be still living.
Cornelius Osterhout and a man named Hull built a saw-mill where the Hudson Mills are now situated, in 1827. Judge Dexter and Isaac Pennoyer erected another in 1832, upon the site of the Dover Mills. The last-named mills were built by Daniel D. Sloan and Co. in 1846, but upon the death of Colonel Sloan, in 1861, they were purchased by Thomas Birkett, their present proprietor. The Hudson Mills, built by Adams and Peters, first began to grind in 1845-6. After passing through several hands, the mill finally became the property of T. Birkett, owner of the Dover Mills.
The Messrs. Noble put up a shanty or tent upon their land in the spring of 1825, where the men lived while they built a house, planted a garden, and broke
up and prepared some land for wheat. The tent was presided over by the eldest daughter of Sylvanus Noble, then a girl of eleven years, now the wife of Dr. A Gray, of Dexter. She tells of how timid she felt in going through the marshes, on account of the "massasaugas." In the fall, having completed arrangements, they removed their families from Ann Arbor. The Nobles, subsequently finding that provisions, especially flour, were in good demand after neighbors began to settle around them, started through the wilderness to Pontiac, where they bought some wheat, had it ground, transported it by some means to the Huron or one of its affluents, built a boat, and loaded flour enough for ten barrels, and came down the river to Dexter, where they sold some, traded some to the Indians, and con- sumed some themselves, making, on the whole, a not very unprofitable venture. On their way down the river they ran into a lake, on which they spent a long time trying to discover the outlet; it was finally found near where they entered the lake, but so hidden from view by grass, rushes, and lily-pads, that they passed it several times before discovering it. The scarcity of provisions in those days was sometimes a serious matter. The game and fish which they hunted, caught, or obtained from the Indians, was ofttimes their sole roliance. While living at Ann Arbor, Mr. Noble went to Ypsilanti to work for something in the way of breadstuffs, and all he was able to obtain was one peck of Indian corn-meal. Mills being distant in that early day, and their fastest roadsters being oxen, they had to resort to the rude pestle-mills,-a primitive mode of reducing corn to sufficient fineness for culinary purposes. But the suffering for want of food was at no time equal to that caused by sickness. Almost every one was prostrated by ague, or some other form of intermittents, within the first year or two after arriving in the country. Mr. Nathaniel Noble said he had the ague almost con- tinuously for thirteen months, and a young son of Mr. Quackinbuch died of it. Many others expected death, or at least thought they could not live, and had but little desire to stay. Many of the old pioneers concur in the statement that there is nothing which will make a person so resigned to death as a long and severe course of the ague. Among the early settlers was one Doctor Belden, who loca- ted and built about a mile west of Mr. Arnold's, when he had his house covered, with a blanket for a door, and boards for windows, with a floor only across one side, he moved his family, consisting of wife and child, into it. The fire-place was merely a back of stone, with a hole above to let the smoke out. The hearth was the bare ground; and everything else was in the rudest fashion. Finding he needed some supplies, he started for Detroit with an ox-team, in company with Warren Spaulding. Soon after his departure, his wife was taken sick with con- gestive chills, and died before he returned. Mrs. Arnold, a neighbor, zat up with the corpse alone. Dr. Belden reached home the next day. He buried his wife, took his child and went back East, a sad-perhaps a wiser-man.
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